Columbia & Greenville R. R. v. Gibbes

Citations

• 24 S.C. 60
• 1885 S.C. LEXIS 73

Syllabus

<p>1. An act of the legislature will not be declared unconstitutional unless it is clearly so.</p> <p>2. The State may grant a charter to a corporation upon such terms as she pleases, and the conditions so imposed become binding on the corporation upon an acceptance of the charter. The State may grant a franchise conferring vested rights beyond future legislative control) but to have such effect it must be clear, explicit, and unconditional.</p> <p>3. Where a railroad company holding a charter that was, in express terms, not liable to amendment, was sold out under orders of the court) and the purchasers formed a now corporation under a general law permitting it in such cases, with all the rights, immunities, &c., possessed by the old corporation previous to the sale under its charter, and amendments thereto, and of otter laws of the State, the new corporation became subject to all laws on the statute book, applicable to railroads, at the date of their organization.</p> <p>4. Where an act created a railroad commission and provided that the expenses thereof should be borne by the several railroads of the State according to their gross income, this statute became a part of the charter of every railroad company thereafter incorporated, and assessments for this purpose annually included in the several tax acts were not successive amendments of those charters, but merely a provision to carry into execution a law already enacted.</p> <p>5. An exaction of a yearly contribution laid by the legislature upon a railroad corporation is not unconstitutional where the corporation accepted its charter subject to such an exaction.</p> <p>6. This case distinguished from Railroad Company v. Howe, 32 Kan., 737.</p> <p>Mr. Justice McIver dissenting.</p> <p>7. Where a corporation claims that its vested rights are impinged by a law on the statute book, the burden is upon the corporation to show that its charter antedated the statute.</p> <p>8. This court cannot, even with the consent of p